The UN received 99 sexual abuse complaints against its staff in 2015 – a sharp increase from the 80 allegations the year before.
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The majority of the allegations in 2015 involved personnel in 10 peacekeeping missions, the report said, listing 69 such cases. The report includes recommendations on the UN’s strategy to prevent these kinds of crimes.
Last December an independent panel calling the United Nations response to allegations in the Central African Republic (CAR) “seriously flawed” and a “gross institutional failure”.
The UN chief is also recommending a six-month limit for investigations, establishing on-site courts martial for soldiers and requiring peacekeeping countries to provide DNA samples of their soldiers on missions.
Officials from the US mission to the United Nations said they are drafting a Security Council resolution to use “the leverage of repatriation to really get member states…to take this with the utmost seriousness that they should”.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon’s report called for an worldwide convention on “crimes committed in peacekeeping operations”.
“This increase in the number of allegations is deeply concerning”, said the report, to be formally released on Friday. The United States pays for more than 28 percent of the more than $8.2 billion U.N. peacekeeping budget.
Ban reported that payments to 12 peacekeepers, three police and one government-provided worker were suspended previous year after credible allegations of sexual abuse surfaced against them. Paternity claims were associated with 15 allegations.
There were allegations against troops and police from Burundi, Germany, Ghana, Senegal, Madagascar, Rwanda, Congo Republic, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Tanzania, Slovakia, Niger, Moldova, Togo, South Africa, Morocco, Benin, Nigeria and Gabon.
“We’re the largest financial contributor to peacekeeping and have an enormous vested interest in seeing peacekeeping be effective, being credible and actually doing what it is supposed to do, which is to protect civilians”, the official said.
The proposed Security Council resolution would endorse the secretary-general’s decision to repatriate United Nations troops or police if there is a pattern of exploitation and abuse by their unit, US officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because consultations have been private.
A lot of them are from African countries, but there are also allegations against staff from several European nations and Canada.
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Countries contributing troops to U.N. peacekeeping operations are sensitive about interference from the United Nations, so it’s unclear whether the council will approve the proposed resolution.
